


I'll figure it out

by shootfortherarls



Series: Otp prompts that no one asked for [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Carl and Ron have a daughter, Carl doesn't know a thing about hair lol, Carl is clueless, Carl struggles and their daughter is like wtf dad, Husbands, I want them to be my parents, Jesse is mentioned briefly, M/M, Rick and Michonne go and help the poor boy later on, Ron and Carl make the cutest parents ok, Ron has a thing for styling her hair, Ron is amused by it, and Ron is just like I love this idiot, rarl - Freeform, their daughter is 6 btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6673276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shootfortherarls/pseuds/shootfortherarls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ron styles their daughter's hair everyday, until he gets hurt and Carl has to take over the job. It's not as easy as it looks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll figure it out

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this prompt from your-otp-prompts on tumblr so all credit goes there for this mess.
> 
> Just imagine Rarl as parents.
> 
> So freaking cute gahhh

Ron had instantly grown fond of styling Bailey's hair every day--whether it was a fishtail she requested or tight curls, he loved doing it, and the beautiful outcome of it.

"Ron! Bailey's running late, can you come do her hair now?" Carl yelled up to Ron, while rushing to wipe the grass stains off his shiny black oxfords.

Ron rushed down the stairs, sweeping up the little red headed girl and sitting her on his shoulders making airplane sounds as the descended down the hall and into the bathroom. Ron making sure to give a small peck to his panicking husband.

"Carl, your shoes look fine, but your hair needs to be fixed," Ron smiles at the (now) relaxed boy.

"Never in a million years, would I had pegged you for the hair styling type," Carl chuckles while fixing his vest and the white button down as all three members of the family enter the large bathroom.

Ron would had never believed it either, if you take a look at Ron and take in the hoodie and baggy jeans, and the holes in both his socks--you would not think he likes waking up every morning to give his daughter the most fascinating and beautiful hairstyles. It kinda shocks Ron too. But once his hands run through the girl's hair and his mind begins to work, he gets lost in the way the hair makes a masterpiece just by simply moving his hands and fingers in the right way.

"What do you want today, bear?" Ron questions his bubbling daughter.

"Boxer Hair! Boxer hair," 

"Calm down, Bailey, daddy will give you boxer hair," Carl hushes her with a small grin.

"I'm hungry," She replied as she begins to play with her bright pink dress, picking at a thread hanging off the end.

"Papa will get you breakfast on your way to school," Ron says glancing over at Carl sheepishly.

Carl glares playfully but continues to watch Ron's hands majestically.

"How do you fu--freaking do that?" Carl fixes his curse word mid-sentence as he stares at the two boxer braids incredulously.

"Well, I tried to teach you once, but you decided to turn into a horn dog," Ron laughs as he begins to finish off the end of the right braid.

"Hey, it is not my fault your hands do things to me--they're so perfect, I can't help myself," Carl whispers as he fondly squeezes Ron's waist and presses a kiss to the back of his husband's neck.

Ron can't help but lean back against Carl's touch, a smirk lingering on his lips.

"What's a horn dog?" Bailey looks at them in confusion--her tiny eyebrows furrowed.

"A dog with a horn, of course," Ron says quickly, as he feels Carl's fingers pinch him softly.

"I told you not to say things like that around her, imagine her getting into one of her argument's with Enid and Mikey's son and calling him a 'horn dog' I could totally imagine it," Carl scolds quietly.

Ron has to stifle a laugh at the image of his sassy daughter saying the word in anger. 

"I'm done, now, let papa pick out a flower that I can put in your hair," Ron says while Bailey nods and begins to swing her feet back and forth in the blue vanity chair Carl had installed for Ron to do Bailey's hair in.

Ron would've picked out the flower, but Carl is more of the stylist (the man is the CEO of one of Atlanta's most popular makeup businesses, RG WALKERS Cosmetics) he knew way more about styling things(except hair), whether it was clothes or makeup, he always found a way to make it look good.

Carl leaves shortly and returns with a majenta-pink flower that matches identically to the dress, he hands it to Ron and watches as his husband begins to tuck it into the braids. Carl had at one point wanted to learn how to do hair, but after seeing how to do a regular braid and how easy it was--how hard would it be after watching a video or two for any other hair styles. Plus, he had Ron, he didn't need to worry about doing Bailey's hair as much if Ron was perfectly capable.

Ron didn't even need to watch videos, since he grew up with a mother as a hair stylist, he picked up a few things. 

"I look so pretty, thank you daddy," Bailey examined the braids with a smile before she jumps up and hops into Ron's arms.

"Hey, what about my hug? I like snuggles," Carl pouts before Bailey opens her arms excitedly.

She pulls her dads together and peppers both their faces in kisses.

"I love you daddy and papa,"

"We love you more, bear,"

-

'Ron was the stay-at-home dad, meaning, he stays at home and does whatever Ron Anderson-Grimes does, How the hell does he end up in the hospital with a fractured wrist?'

That's the first thing Carl thought as he rushed to the hospital in a panic.

"Luckily, we caught the fracture early, because these fracture can sometimes go unnoticed until the hand has to be amputated, because of the amount of pressure people put on a wrist daily-"

"Do you hear that, You couldve got your arm amputated, dumbass," Carl interrupts Dr. Snow, scolding his drowsy husbands who had to take a large dose of pain medication for them to snap his wrist back in place and examine it.

"I'm going to go get you the prescription slip for you to order," Dr. Snow departs with a short wave and a chuckle parting from his lips.

"Calm down, babe--that guy was an asshole, I-I mean it's f-fucking 2016-" Ron giggles as he leans his head against Carl's hand that he was holding.

"Who's still homophobic--Robert Marino, of course, that jerk always had it out for me since high school, that's why I kicked his ass," Ron smirks as he kisses Carl's hand with a snort.

Carl can't help but grin down fondly at his drowsy and protective husband, Ron's always been like that and he's grown used to the man hurting himself in order to protect their family--he's stupid but in love and Carl would've done just the same if he had been in the same position.

"I love you, idiot," 

\--

Carl's always known this day would come, he just hoped it didn't, styling things was never a problem for him--hair was the issue. He'd grown used to just letting his hair grow out and either leaving it simply brushed or tying it in a sloppy bun to the back (which would ultimately be fixed by Ron) and now it had came time for Carl to do Bailey's hair, when Ron did it--sure it looked a bit hard but that's what YouTube videos are for, but as he watches videos from ' _Momhairstyling101_ ' on how to do two simple braids--he got lost after the cheery mother said grab three strands. So he's decided to freestyle it.

"This does not look like daddy's braids," Bailey looks in the mirror of the bathroom, looking strangely at the messy strands of hair looking as if they're tied together on each side of the girl's head.

"Well daddy can't do it, so you're stuck with me kid," Carl explains trying to hide the stressed tone in his voice.

"Do you see why I told you that you would need to learn how to do this one day?" 

Carl turns around to see his smiling husband standing in the doorway, a smirk threatening to form on his lips--Carl isn't sure if he wants to slap his husband or agree with him and pray the man gets better before Carl actually loses his mind.

"Oh shush it, I'm trying my best okay? I'll figure it out, Plus I don't see you doing anything," Carl teases as his husband only rolls his eyes and walks over, wrapping his arms around his waist.

"I'll guide your hands, or I'll try at least," Ron says as he places his hands on Carl's hand's, careful of the cast covering his dominant hand.

"First, you should start with taking three strands," 

Ron waits for Carl to unbraid the mess he had before, pinching Bailey's cheek as she grins back pulling a silly face at him, sticking her tongue out and stretching her mouth with her fingers, Ron pins his chin to his chest causing a double chin to appear, while he scrunches up his face to make an unattractive look.

"Even when you do those faces, you're still the most attractive person there is," Carl kisses him on the head, causing Ron to blush but continue to show Carl how to braid.

"Next, you need to take either a piece of hair on the left or right, I usually do the right side first and cross it over to the one in the middle," Ron instructs sliding his hand in between Carl's to show him how to hold the hair.

Carl nods and takes the right piece of hair as he crosses it over the middle strand.

"Now you just repeat what you did, since you used the right strand first, you need to go to the left strand, and you just alternate," Ron explains while he watches his husband stick his tongue out in concentration, an adorable frown sets on his face when it all falls apart.

"How about we just have a nice, messy bun?"

\--

 Ron's gonna be disabled for another two weeks for his wrist injury to heal. 

It's not that Carl knew completely nothing about hair, it's just that--because of Ron growing up with a hairstylist mother, and Carl's businesswoman mother had died during childbirth when he was twelve, he just didn't think there was a need to figure out how to style a girl's hair after, even when his sister Judith was young and begged him some days to do something to her hair when their father Rick or their step mother Michonne, would go to work early, he'd brush it neatly and send her off. Sometimes he thinks, if his mother, Lori, had never died she most likely would've engraved the idea of styling hair in his brain, but as much as he loved styling clothing and makeup, hair was never something he was good at. Even his father was better at styling hair, the guy couldn't even work his laptop and he had learned how to do a fishtail braid by himself. And Michonne had also tried to show him how to do it with Juduth's hair, but he had been 17, a rebelling teen boy, he didn't care for that much.

He regrets that now.

\--

"Let's start with the basics," 

Rick and Michonne have came over to help--they didn't want to call it an intervention, but they heard about their son having trouble although they told him millions of time he would need to learn at one point. And now here they were, a doll with long brown hair and two excited parents.

"We're gonna show you a simple braid, we heard you had some trouble on that," Rick laughs along with Michonne, ignore the glare from Carl.

"I know how it starts and stuff, I jut get confused after the crossing strands part," Carl explains while running his fingers through the doll's hair.

"That's the easy part, you just gotta put your mind to it!" Michonne grins while she grabs three strands and places them in his hand.

"is this hair training or something?" Carl laughs at how serious they both seem.

"Yes it is, now, cross the right piece of hair over the middle part--next, take your left strand and cross it over the middle, and repeat the first step," Michonne watches in slowly rising hot as it looks like Carl is getting it.

"I think our boy has got it," Rick whispers as he places a hand on Michonne's hip in joy.

"Oh my god, I did it! Holy--oh my god, where's my husband when I need him," Carl cheers at the realization that he, Carl Grimes has done a full braid.

"Yeah, he's got it,"

\--

Carl only knows how to do one single braid, which hey, is a major upgrade for him. But, his over-the-top daughter never settles for simple things and he's been doing a braid in her hair for the past week, but she can handle it for the next seven days.

"I want-"

"A braid, you are just getting a braid, sorry bear," 

Carl shrugs at the girl's bored expression, it'll have to last for the short time left, plus they look better and better every day and Ron always compliments them with a impressed look in his day while he pecks Carl as a reward--that's probably why he also doesn't change the hair style, Ron's kisses always leave him star struck even after all these years.

Plus, Bailey loves his braids, even if she doesn't know it yet.

\--

The minute Carl sees a text from Ron saying come home early, it scares him if he was being completely honest. The last time he was pulled from work early, his husband had got in a fight with a homophobic person and suffered a fractured wrist. So you can imagine how fast he came home.

"Didn't expect you to be home this early," Ron greets at the door, his hands behind his back, a michevuous look on his face.

"Well last time I left work early you were hurt so," Carl tips Ron's head back and presses a kiss to the pink lips.

what he doesn't expect is to feel both the boy's hands caressing his face gently, the hand that Carl had missed dearly, run through his hair and down his head until they touching his face again.

"W-what? When did you--? I thought you had another week!" Carl stutters breathlessly and happy.

"Nope, I told you I had one week left,so I could surprise you, I want to show you something else," Ron drags Carl to their living room table.

Carl is also shocked to see the table filled with many practice doll heads with hair and curling irons, hair moisturizer and a bunch of other stuff Carl has no idea what it is.

"I uh thought, we could spend the rest of the day practicing like I could teach you-- I just saw how you practiced and uh--I'm sorry I took you out of work for this, this is du-"

Carl cuts him off with a searing kiss, a grin spreading on his face, into the kiss.

"It'd be an honor to have you teach me,"

\--

In the end, Carl still was terrible at hair, and Ron had the worst migraine from restraining from knocking the boy upside his head to get some knowledge in it, some steps were so easy and yet the boy kept failing. But they called it a night once Bailey came home and cheered on Carl until she was restless and the man could still not yet figure out a French braid.

Once Ron had brought her to her bedroom and departed the room to go help clean up their little hair station.

Carl suddenly began laughing and soon Ron was joining his husband as they both tried to breathlessly shush each other not to wake Bailey up, until they were kissing and laughing into each other's mouths.

"I'll figure it out," Carl reassures with a knowing smile.

The man would never figure it out, but that's what Ron was for.


End file.
